Spinning the roulette wheel

Posted by Dan Wilson Craw1632.20sc on January 27, 2016

If you ever wonder why we as a nation are "obsessed" with home ownership when people happily rent for life in Germany and the Netherlands, consider the number of ways you can lose your home as a renter.

Even if you pay the rent on time, take care of the property, and learn your neighbours' names, you can be forced to move if the landlord decides to sell up, raise the rent to a level you can't afford, or just doesn't renew the tenancy.

A new poll from BMG finds that 27% of current and former private renters have experienced an unwanted move.

Most landlords want a reliable tenant who will stay put for many years, so they aren't going to risk losing them by bumping up the rent, and they want their property to be a long term investment, not just something to sell when the price is right.

But there are enough unscrupulous or unreliable landlords out there who will force out a blameless tenant that there is a one in four chance that it will happen to you. That figure is probably higher given how long many of us can expect to be renting for.

Although 39% of private renters don't realise landlords can evict tenants on no-fault grounds, for the rest of us that means that renting means never really knowing where your home will be in a year's time.

No one likes moving home, especially when it involves raiding your savings for letting fees, carpet cleaning, and the deposit and rent up front, while worrying about getting your current deposit back. That's why we're calling on the government to protect renters from no-fault evictions by requiring the landlord to compensate the tenant for the up front cost of moving - approximately three months' rent. With this deterrent, along with a limit on rent rises, tenants will have greater security in their home.

The poll suggests that 66% of the population supports compensation for no-fault evictions, and 75% supports limits on rent rises.

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This is a decent step but not enough. Many working people still face income discrimination and can therefore never afford to move. They are either stuck with a rent they can hardly pay or they become homeless. Homeless people are not going to be likely to carry on with their job or concentrate at work when they suffer from such stress. Please attend the YESDSS rally in Hackney on February 27th